Alphonso Jefferson developed and led the implementation of an Offender Management Dashboard to assist with a better understanding of jail population demographics.

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Broward County “Offender Management Dashboard Project”
Broward County “Offender Management Dashboard Project”
Abstract of the Program:
The Broward Sheriff's Office (BSO) operates the 13th largest local jail system in the United
States, and the second largest to earn national accreditation from the American Correctional
Association. BSO oversees all jail facility operations and community-based offender programs
within Broward County. Annually, approximately 36,000 inmates comprising every ethnicity,
age, and socioeconomic group are booked into BSO's jail for crimes ranging from civil
infractions to murder. The average daily population at all jail facilities exceeds 3,600 and is
expected to rise each year.
The Offender Management Dashboard Project was designed to identify inefficiencies within the
criminal justice system (CJS), and to target CJS resources to reduce the jail population. The
project was coordinated between Broward County, the Broward Sheriff’s Office and Microsoft
Corporation. The goal is to use data to improve case processing and reduce inmate’s days in jail
using detailed customizable reports enabling each CJS component and stakeholder to utilize
data in processing criminal cases. As a result, resources can be maximized reducing the length
of incarceration, reducing the inmate population especially special populations such as
communities of color, women, individuals with serious mental illness, and individuals who
identify as LGBTQ+.
The Problem or Need for the Program
The Broward Sheriff's Office (BSO) operates the 13th largest local jail system in the United States,
and the second largest to have earned national accreditation from the American Correctional
Association. BSO oversees all jail facility operations and community-based offender programs
within Broward County. Annually, approximately 36,000 inmates comprising every ethnicity, age,
and socioeconomic group are booked into BSO's jail for crimes ranging from civil infractions to
murder. The average daily population at all jail facilities, exceeds 3,600 and is expected to rise
each year. In 2016, the average daily population (ADP) was over 4,000 individuals. At that time,
the jail held 81.1% un-sentenced and 18.9% sentenced individuals. The 2016 average length of stay
(ALOS) for a jail inmate was 39.65 days. The ALOS is much greater than the national average and
has been trending upward from 29.79 days since 2010. Similar to the overall jailed population,
the ALOS of inmates disproportionally impacts people of color, women, mentally ill, low-income
persons and LGBTQ+. A reduction in average length of stay by even one day would decrease
the jail ADP by approximately 100 inmates. In response, Broward County and the Broward
Sheriff’s Office partnered with Microsoft Corporation to develop a customized criminal data
management system to increase its effectiveness to impact earlier pretrial release. The Offender

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Broward County “Offender Management Dashboard Project”
Management Dashboard Project was designed with the purpose of identifying inefficiencies within
the criminal justice system (CJS), and to target CJS resources to reduce the jail population.
The Offender Management Dashboard assists to reduce the number of jail inmates and decrease
court processing time. The Offender Management Dashboard enhances the pretrial management
system involving cross-collaboration between the County’s Jail Management System and the Clerk
of Courts Management Information System. Historically, the County faced numerous obstacles
ranging from its data integration to the management of its jail population. Moreover, a systemic
gap in communication was evident as more than eighty (80) percent of the jail population
remained un-sentenced. Data was not attainable to identify key processing times for stages of
criminal justice procedures linked to in-custody defendants. Without this critical information, the
Criminal Justice System (CJS) was uninformed as to where and how to direct resources to reduce
the jail population.
Description of the Program
The Offender Management Dashboard Project consists of two phases and was designed to
identify inefficiencies within the criminal justice system (CJS), and to target CJS resources to
decrease the retrial release. The first phase of the project included developing a web-based
system to manage and automate jail data. The project is coordinated between Broward County,
the Sheriff’s Office and Microsoft Corporation. Broward County, as the lead agency, worked with
our partners to develop and purchase a software program that was custom designed by Microsoft
Corporation for the Broward Sheriff’s Office which served to upgrade its criminal data
management system. The County has a direct interest in the reduction of jail populations as it
oversees and funds the major areas within the criminal justice system. The Offender Management
Dashboard Project was developed to create a system that was automated and that would allow
users to access data on the jail population, increase the efficiency of reporting and to use data to
identify opportunities to reduce the population in facilities and target resources.
BSO, through the Department of Detention and Information and Technology Division provided
staff dedicate to the development and implementation of this project. BSO has a vast
understanding of criminal justice processes, data, and technology as it relates to achieving the
project goals. The Sheriff’s Office operates the jail and is directly impacted by the jail
population. The Sheriff’s Office collaborates with all entities within the CJS on various initiatives
and participates in the Public Safety Coordinating Council. Leadership from BSO also serves as
a Board Member on the Public Safety Coordinating Council, working on initiatives to reduce
the jail population and provide services for offenders and re-entry opportunities upon release
from jail. The Council was established to allow the components of the CJS to collaborate and
seek methods to reduce the jail population. The Council’s purpose is to assess the population
status of all detention or correctional facilities owned or contracted by Broward County to

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Broward County “Offender Management Dashboard Project”
formulate recommendations to ensure that the capacities of such facilities are not exceeded.
Recommendations include an assessment of the availability of pretrial intervention or probation
programs, work-release programs, substance abuse programs, gain-time schedules, applicable
bail bond schedules, and the confinement status of the inmates housed within each facility
owned or contracted by the County.
The Offender Management Dashboard is a web-based tool that allows users to query and pull
data that can identify patterns or trends which impact the jail population. The dashboard reports
are organized by category tabs Criminal Charges, Facilities, Demographics, and Housing. Reports
can be pulled that provide information on the jail population including average length of stay, the
number of inmate bookings, bond status (amount of bond and inmate bond status), and
demographic information. By having access to query-based data and reports, BSO and our
partners can engage in data-informed decision making. The County sought to identify the cause
of the ALOS increase and aggressively direct initiatives to decrease court processing time. The
County measures overall results of the project by calculating ALOS and ADP for individuals in
jail. Ultimately, the goal of the project is to analyze the impact of ALOS for specific demographic
groups and charge types. A reduction in the ALOS directly impacts people of color, women,
mentally ill, low-income persons and LGBTQ+, who as previously mentioned, are
disproportionately represented in jail populations. The Broward County jail demographic is 59.7%
Black, 34.6% White, 5.2% Hispanic and 0.5% identified as other. Approximately 30% of the jail
population is provided mental health services with 6% experiencing acute mental illness. Over
400 incarcerated females make up 10.7% of the jail population.
Information accessible through the Offender Management Dashboard is reported and monitored
by the Broward County Public Safety Coordinating Council. This 11-member Council Board
consists of members from the Broward County Government and County Commission, the
Sheriff’s Office, Clerk of Courts, State Attorney’s Office, Public Defender’s Office, the Chiefs of
Police Association, State Probation, mental health and substance abuse service providers, the
Florida Bar Association (represents private attorneys working in the CJS), and the community.
Phase II of the project will include integrating the Offender Management Dashboard with the
Clerk of Court’s data management information system. This allows key stakeholders within the
criminal justice system to access specific data regarding the arrest, charges, case processing and
the identification of special populations and allows coordination of the data among collaborating
partners. Accessibility to key data points helps increase communication among stakeholders and
provides the ability to analyze information and gain insight about the challenges and gaps found
within the jail system.
The timeline for the design and implementation of the Offender Management Dashboard
occurred over the course of fifteen (15) months. Broward County and the Broward Sheriff’s
Office worked in partnership to coordinate all technological requirements needed to access the

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Broward County “Offender Management Dashboard Project”
Clerk of Courts Management Information System and Data. A contract was executed with
Microsoft Corporation to design and create the Offender Management Dashboard. The actual
development, testing, configuration, customization and deployment of the system occurred
during the initial seven (7) months of the project. Once the system was live, demonstrations and
training were provided to staff. Analysis and preliminary findings based on the availability of data
occurred during months 11-15.
The Cost of the Program
The Offender Management Dashboard was planned, developed and implemented by Broward
County and Broward Sheriff’s Office staff. There were two phases of the project. The Phase I
project budget was $200,000 and Phase II cost $247,000 of which $50,000 was grant funded to
help support partial software development costs through a contract with Microsoft Corporation.
Microsoft assisted in the implementation and integration of the BSO Offender Management
Dashboard with the Clerk of Courts Odyssey System. The County’s estimated in-kind services
consisting of mainly staffing costs were $197,000.
The Results/Success of the Program
The overall goal of the project was to create an Offender Management Dashboard by integrating
jail and court data to assist judges, public defenders, prosecutors, and the clerk of court in
identifying and addressing delays within their criminal case processing times. The project has
resulted in cost savings by reducing ALOS and the ADP, as well as improvements and increased
efficiencies in the CJS. The average length of stay for years 2016-2019 is as follows:
- 2019 / 37.3 Days
- 2018 / 34.5 Days
- 2017 / 39.7 Days
- 2016 / 40.3 Days
The reduction in ALOS from 2016 – 2019 resulted in a decrease of 300 individuals in the average
daily population in jails, equaling a 7.5% reduction. The BSO’s objectives were to target how
information is shared within the CJS; develop the architecture for a sustainable tool; and to
provide data to drive informed decision making. Detailed customizable reports were created so
that end users were able to access and analyze the data available for each component of the CJS
specific to their role in processing criminal cases, or for those who provide or link detainees to
services. The Data Dashboard is web-based and accessible to agencies based on user rights. Long
term outcome measures of the project include: 1) Improving case processing efficiency including

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Broward County “Offender Management Dashboard Project”
reducing offender length of stays and a decrease in jail population and 2) Funding initiatives which
support case processing efficiencies.
The County has prioritized measuring the ALOS for special populations. For example, individuals
who are court ordered to a state hospital and for restorative treatment in community mental
health programs are tracked and ALOS calculated. Similarly, the ALOS for individuals sentenced
to residential substance abuse programs are also evaluated. The Public Safety Coordinating
Council’s focus on data and analytics captured from the dashboard has allowed the CJS to work
collaboratively to reduce the jail population. The ability to identify and track sub-populations using
ALOS affords the Public Safety Coordinating Council and CJS the ability to strategically plan
initiatives to improve access to services, programs and to expedite release of specific sub-
populations of jailed offenders.
A reduction in the ALOS and decreased jail population benefits families and the entire community.
Families benefit through reunification with their family member, an expedited return to
employment, and the ability to provide for their support. Individuals benefit from access to
community -based treatment and services for medical, mental health and substance abuse issues.
Taxpayers also benefit from reduced costs when there is a reduction in ALOS particularly
because of the County’s cost to incarcerate offenders. Consequently, inmate population
reductions affect all jail operations, services, budgeting, staffing and agency liability. Operational
changes include decreased inmate transports which impacts institutional safety and security. The
overall jail budget can be reduced through per-inmate costs associated with food, medical, dental,
mental health services and items directly related to inmate care.
Worthiness of Award
The “Offender Management Dashboard” project works to enhance and improve the
administration of the BSO’ jails and the court systems management of offender populations in a
cost-effective, data-driven approach. The project provides information that facilitates effective
public policy making by ensuring that decisions are made based on data rather than subjective
processes. The project also promotes intergovernmental cooperating and coordination by
integrating jail and court data to assist judges, public defenders, prosecutors, and clerk of the
courts in identifying and addressing delays within their criminal case processing times. Through
this process and judiciary engagement, other initiatives have been implemented such as the
Chief Judge’s emphasis on first appearance and primary form of release as non-monetary for
those who do not pose a threat to public safety and enhanced usage of Pre-Trial Services.
The County has been successful in bring together a diverse group of major stakeholders in the
criminal justice system who are concerned about the over population of jails, particularly the
disproportionate representation of special populations such as people of color, women,

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Broward County “Offender Management Dashboard Project”
mentally ill, low-income persons and LGBTQ+. Stakeholders include the County, the Broward
County Sherriff’s Office, the County Clerk of the Courts 17th Judicial Circuit of Florida, the
17th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida (Judiciary), the Office of the State Attorney 17th Judicial
Circuit, the Office of the Public Defender, Florida Department of Corrections (Felony
probation), and several behavioral health and substance abuse services providers. Stakeholders
have benefited from the data accessible as a result of the project. It has helped to assess where
system inefficiencies exist and identification of needs as well as the stakeholders’ role in the
process.